Ghosts
by Amber Eva
Summary: She was an experiment. Since the day she was born till the day she died. Ryan managed to get away, escape that. And while tracking her down, he gets dragged in with a bunch of hero sidekicks. No pairing yet, T just in case. Idk the genre. NOT ONE-SHOT.


**_Escape_**

* * *

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't _think_. Pins and needles across her skin. Tears leaked down her face. Chills shook her body over and over again. Heartbeat in her ears. Inside of her chest tightened. Too tight. _Pain._

Her vision was distorted. The middle seemed to pop, every little colour irritating her eyes. She felt stiff as she pushed herself off the hard surface she was leaning against. Her legs were not ready and she collapsed to her knees, her palms hitting the floor. Shaking her head to get rid of the dizziness, she looked up.

There was someone with her. Surrounded by reddish-brown. Rocks? Red. They were dressed in red. Pale chin. They were coming towards her. She felt _someone_ touch her shoulder. She heard a voice, but the words didn't make sense.

_Touch. Voice. Glass. Cold. Dark._

Her eyes widened as she stared at _someone_. She couldn't focus on them - _him_? But the flashes of _before _were _enough._ She closed her eyes. She was scared - terrified.

_Go! **Get away from me!**_

_Someone's _hand slipped away. He bent to the floor, his hands to his head. Half the face covered. His teeth were showing. He was yelling. Screaming. She blinked, but it didn't help. Was he in pain? Why was he in pain? Why didn't he just do as she asked?

Was he one of _them_? _They _will lock her up.

Cold. Dark. _Pain_.

She didn't want to be cold. Or in the dark. She needed to escape - to get out of there. She didn't like to be in _pain_. And if they come...

Stumbling to her feet she ran to the entrance to the room. Last time metal automatic doors were blocking the way. Now they were open. But her legs refused to move. They refused to keep her upright. She fell to the floor. Arms circled her waist. One second she felt the touch, a scream of terror escaped her, but the next... nothing. She was sinking, through the arms, into the ground. Into the dark and cold.

The pain dulled. It was one of the only comforts. She needed to calm down. Think. _Think._ But the more she told herself to calm down, the more out of control everything seemed. Thoughts swarmed her head, too many, leaving her drowning in her own mind.

All she knew - all she could grasp at that moment - was that she had to get out. _To get away_.

There was something peaceful, soothing in the cold. Under all the restlessness and terror in her mind. It was strange. But it was neither pleasant nor terrible, and she was grateful. It was better than most of her life. Had she died? Was this the dark tunnel? She couldn't see her life flash in a reminder of everything she was alive for. Then again, she didn't live much of _life_. All she could remember were screams... and pain.

As a scream echoed in her brain, a flash of crushing pain convulsed her body. She couldn't move. She tried to scream but even that was out of her reach. Until again she felt as if floating, a dull ache in her muscles. _What was happening to her?_ Terror gripped her chest. She was drowning. Her legs kicked out, her arms aimlessly waving, pushing her up.

And then she saw the light. The rocks. The red man. But she was floating, no pull downwards, no ground under her feet. It all felt surreal. And at the same time, _too real_.

"...got some psychic headache powers. And she just disappeared. In the ground... What should I do now?"

_English._ The man spoke in _English. They _spoke in _English_. _They _sent him here. He won't get her. _They _won't. Not again.

She felt the pull. A moment later she hit the ground. Everything hurt again, though not the agonizing pain when she was underground. Air couldn't get past to her lungs, she was hyperventilating. Just to get a breath.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. Can you hear me? Just breathe. You'll be okay."

She raised her head and glared. It must have looked pathetic, with her choking as she tried to get air into her lungs, tears on her cheeks. Nothing was ever _alright_. She never liked that one lie. _You're going to be alright._ It helps no one, achieves nothing. Gives false hope.

"**_Leave me alone!_**"

The man took a step back and swayed. He was in pain, she could see. She bolted. Ran towards the entrance. Never looked back. But her legs were still stiff and it seemed as if she was walking through a swamp. Her feet sank into the floor a little with each step, never reaching solid ground. Clumsily, fighting with each step, she tried to remember the way. She was underground – deep underground – and there was a lift somewhere around here. But where?

It turned to be quite easy. Instinct, luck – whatever it was – she saw the lift doors. She pushed all the buttons, hitting them a million times. Frustrated she punched the panel when the lift doors opened. 0. She needed to get to the Sublevel 0. The doors closed just as she saw the red man coming around the corner.

It went up, the shiny yellow numbers decreasing steadily. For the first time, she had time to look at herself. Her arm caught her attention first. Pale hand. Long nails. White sleeve. Dirt. She looked down at her body. The white fabric covered her entirely. Her hair was curly under her fingers. She looked at her hand again. It began to morph, change. Dark skin. Short nails. Blonde hair grew down her shoulders.

Whatever _they _had done to her, at least they didn't take away her abilities. Or at least all of them.

She frowned when she remembered the man. He didn't do as she told him. Why? Why was he in pain? Was it because he fought her command or because _they_ did –

The lift stopped. The number showed the number 25. And as the doors began to open, fear took control over her mind. She fell. Through the lift floor. Down, down, _down_. She closed her eyes as she saw dimly lit ground. Pain and then nothing. Again.

This time she didn't want to stay in the dark. She needed to get out. Find a way out. Kicking as hard as she could, she swam out of the dark into the lift shaft. She kept her eyes up, tried to stay focused. Now and then there were brief moments, where gravity seemed to remember that she wasn't affected but she never fell all the way down. Her flight was slow, she didn't really know if it was her own attempt to stay as safe as possible while the solid ground increasingly got further away or just her newfound _ability _wasn't exactly quick.

The lift went down. She shielded her head as it approached her and stopped. But there was no hit, no contact, nothing. She went through as if it was never there. As if _she _wasn't there. For a brief moment when she opened her eyes, there was light. The interior of the lift. Two people there. But it went away quickly as the ceiling passed her just like the floor.

Blinking, she stared at the disappearing ceiling of the lift. Her trance was only broken when she felt the force of gravity calling her down. Just a few metres, just enough to make her think she will fall all the way down before _the ability _caught her mid-air.

It was out of control.

Pretending that she was diving seemed to work. Or drowning. Just that she wasn't suffocating. In fact, it appeared as if she _didn't_ _need_ air at all.

Eventually, she made it up. Through the gaping hole out. Something happened before. There was no building above, just a night sky. The moon, millions of stars. Ruins.

She kicked and waved herself away, trying to keep herself close to the ground. But most importantly moving away from that horrible place. Sometimes she rose a little out of comfort height and with every time she felt fear of height creeping more and more. She was never afraid of heights, but now? In the lift shaft, she was more preoccupied with pain and falling and fear of being caught and just everything. Now she could remember falling, the pain when she hit the floor. Now she was afraid to be more than half a metre off the ground.

She was in the city. Not a small town. There were high-rise building all around. Her feet touched the floor. Overwhelming exhaustion washed over her. She stumbled into some dark alley. It had a horrible smell. But she didn't care. Overwhelmed by everything, tired, she just curled into herself behind a skip bin and fell asleep.

No dreams for her that night – and she was glad.

* * *

The years of searching. Sleepless months he spent on this lead. All led here. Cadmus Labs. Or what was was left of them anyway.

The place was in ruins. Even if before she was here, she wouldn't be now. That is, if she wasn't crushed by the building. Those blocks of ceiling looked very heavy...

_Don't think about it. She's alive. Just not here._

Ryan sighed. _She's alive_, he told himself over and over again. Of course now he had nothing to go with, no lead or anything, his last one led him to Cadmus. And, well, if it would have been of any help, he wouldn't be standing in ruins.

He took out the infrared thermal scanner. Just in case there was someone under the rubble still alive to be questioned. Maybe he won't need to hunt down some ninja guy again to get another tip. But frankly, the universe hasn't been on his side, well, ever, so it wouldn't surprise Ryan to find himself chasing another dead-end soon again.

He approached a deep hole, around which the ruins had been moved away. It was deep. There was something moving. Ryan squinted his eyes to s -

"You shouldn't be here," a deep voice spoke and Ryan froze. He turned around, dropping the scanner and taking out his gun.

There stood a man dressed in all black. A cape hung of his shoulders and it ended in spiky triangles of fabric. The cape hid how he was dressed except for boots which, surprise surprise, also were black. Black - man, did this guy like _black_, - cowl covered half his face.

"Says the guy cosplaying a bat," said Ryan. "Or is it modern Dracula you're going for?"

The man didn't seem to be amused. His eyes narrowed. The glare Ryan got should have probably put him six feet under. Well, at the very least it made him want to jump down that hole.

Of course he knew, or at least suspected, who the man was. _Batman_. But it'll probably be safer to play ignorant. It's not like Ryan knew much of the man anyway. Americans were just too weird to keep up with, they had too much of these dressed weirdos running around to remember every single detail about them. _Batman_ just happened to be one of the most mentioned ones.

"Put down the gun. You don't want this fight."

"You're right, I don't," said Ryan. He lowered his gun. "But got to be prepared if, say, a vampire attacks. Not healthy to walk around with no blood."

Again the glare. He was good at it. The being-a-total-killjoy 'it'. Ryan even felt a bit insulted. _He_, personally, thought he was hilarious, but if the Dracula doesn't have a sense of humour, then screw the guy.

"Who are you anyway? Not that I mind calling you Dracula for however long I've got to deal with you, but you don't seem to like the name."

"Batman."

Well, at least he guessed right. Still Ryan burst out laughing. "Seriously? If that's what your parents named you, I feel sorry for you man. And that's something coming from me. My parents didn't even give me a name. You can call me Ryan though. Still you know there's always an option to change it? You don't have to embrace the name. But whatever man, you do you."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for something. _Someone_. I thought it was obvious. But it's probably hopeless, seeing as nothing's left here. What about you?"

"Who are you searching for?"

"You don't like to talk much, do you?" Ryan pocketed the gun and grabbed the scanner. "But it's none of your business really. I just need to check -"

Ryan stopped when he saw multiple shapes of red and yellow surrounded by blue through the scanner under the rubble.

_That's interesting._

"There's people alive there," Ryan informed Dracula. "They're moving around. Not panicking. Wonder what they're doing."

"Their job. _Leave_."

"Are you on blood withdrawal or something? I heard you the first time. It was funny until it no longer was." Ryan glared at him. He felt anger raising in him. Months of frustration at the whole situation just spilled out. "I went to Mexico. Almost got my arms broken. Go undercover as a drug dealer. Almost married a drug lord's daughter. The ninja guy tells me to ask his ninja girlfriend. So I go to Beijing." By now Ryan was waving his arms around frustrated and pacing back and forth, as if in a way reliving everything. "Almost get my head chopped off. Get into a shootout. Some Chinese guy swears to bury me alive. Almost does.

"Anyway this ninja girl says that she's heard that someone from super-secret ninja organization was being moved to some genetic labs here in the good old US of A. So I go to US, almost get deported. Then I get into armed robbery. Mouth off to the criminal. Almost get everyone killed. The police - freaking police - give me an hour long lecture. My car breaks down in the middle of the road. Have to walk to next town. Almost burn alive. Meet a friend. He tells me my old boss wants me dead. Almost kills me.

"That was two days ago." He held two fingers to Batman's face. "Haven't slept or eaten since. I'm exhausted and so _done_ with this whole thing. And that's like one _tenth_ of the last year and a half. But when I get here, what do I see? Ruins! And some guy dressed as some mutated monster bat. I didn't go through all _that _just so _you_, Mister Dracula Wannabe," - he poked the man's chest, - "STOP ME!"

Ryan glared for a moment and then swiftly turned around and stomped away. He needed to figure out how to get down that hole. She has to be there. Or some lead. Because he doesn't want to get indebted to another one of his old trigger happy, bloodthirsty buddy assassins for information. It's seriously aging him, and he's like what? Twelve? Fourteen? Well, point is, he's too young for this shit.

"Who are you searching for?"

"I know I didn't say it outright in my tirade, but it was implied. Just _shut up_."

"I _won't_ ask twice."

"Good for you, buddy." The glare. It really unnerved Ryan. "Fine! My sister. Shape-shifter. I think she has some psychic abilities. She's like nine or something. But honestly could look like eighty year old grandma."

"Earlier today we found a girl on Sublevel 48. In her early teens. She escaped."

"Figures," Ryan muttered. "Well, gotta look around. Maybe I'll find some clue. Cause I seriously don't have time or energy to hunt down another ninja assassin."

"Where are your parents?"

"Don't know. Don't care. As long as they're at least a thousand kilometres away."

"So, you're a teenager, whose parents are absent and probably abusive, who gets into life threatening situations wherever he goes and who is chasing a dangerous child with abilities that she appears to be unable to control."

"Hey, to be fair I think she has her shape-shifting figured out. And she's not dangerous, just _slightly _deadly."

The man breathed out in frustration. This was going to be an interesting night.

* * *

**Hello, person-I-don't-know-yet! I really hope you enjoyed! If you didn't, tell me. If you did, tell me. If you're bored, tell me. PM me. Cause I'm bored. And socially awkward. Anyway, I'm happy you made all the way to this annoyingly boring note (let's be honest, most skip it anyway, that's what I usually do). But if you wanted to know:**

**1\. The girl isn't named not because I was lazy to come up with a name. I mean I'm lazy, just not ****_that _lazy. Before I ramble, it's left out for a reason. The only thing you need to know now is that she doesn't know her name, though I hope it's pretty clear.**

**2\. You _might _have noticed that the English in the text is a _little _off and a _little _mixed. I have excuses! First, my English is the bastard child of the internet, Hollywood, and school. Second, their English is like [idk what number] language. Just not native. So the first part is in some weird English, but it isn't supposed to be English, but it wasn't written in any other language and probably won't be, but the protagonist understands English and you're magically understanding everything that's going on even though thoughts aren't really in any language but yeah. Second part is also in some weird English, but the conversation is actually in English, so it doesn't matter really. She's panicked when she heard English, so it matters. He didn't, so it doesn't. Got it? Good, glad to hear.**

**Anyway, sorry about any character that were and will be (100000000% sure) OCC. If you have time and can help me make them less OCC, PLEASE HELP. Lastly, while in this chapter there wasn't much of connection to YJ (I promise it'll change in next chapters!), I still probably should tell you that if I owned YJ or any of DC content, I wouldn't post my stories here. I'd force them into comic books or series so people with actual talent (aka not me) can draw or animate the story. And then cry at the backlash about how I ruined everyone's faves.**

**Alright, I'm out. (Maybe) till next time!**


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